Headliners; Storm of Protest

Published: November 13, 1988

The special memorial session of the West German Parliament was to mark the 50th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the pogrom that confirmed the full fury of the Nazis against the Jews in Germany. But the address by the speaker, Philipp Jenninger, set off a political storm instead. Mr. Jenninger, a senior member of the governing Christian Democratic Party, tried to show that most Germans had let themselves be ''blinded and seduced'' by the Nazis to remind Germans of the enthusiasm of their ancestors in the rise of Hitler. About 50 members of Parliament walked out, accusing the speaker of seeming to justify the Nazi era. Mr. Jenninger later resigned, saying in his letter of resignation, ''My speech was not understood by many of those who heard it in the way I meant it.''